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September 2009 is a busy month here! For starters,
we have two birthdays to celebrate: Luc on the 3rd,
and Jen on the 20th. But wait... there’s more! Also
happening on the 20th: Luc & Jen are getting
married! They’ll be tying the knot in Auburn and
honeymooning in Aruba.
In spite of Luc and Jen being gone a week, Kamp
K9 will still be open. Justin, Jen's son who is
familiar to a lot of you, will be here, looking
after the house and the shop. At that point we will
also have a new employee (as our prior one left
for college in late August), so there’ll be plenty
of able-bodied coverage here. (Meanwhile, you can
be sure that some pix of Aruba will be available
with the next newsletter.)
A Skimpy Newsletter This Month
As you could probably guess, Luc & Jen have
their hands full as the days lead up to the wedding,
so this newsletter is a short one. We’d prefer to
give you a truncated version rather than none at
all.
A Smoother Road!
September 2nd saw County Road getting a band-aid
top coat of tar, on the mile stretch from Smiling
Hill Farm to where it was re-paved last year. It's
not a permanent solution, but at least the impact
to traffic here was a bare minimum, and we don’t
feel all the small earthquakes that always came
with big rigs passing by and hitting hundreds of
pot holes. We’re actually sleeping better already.
Beware of Certain Breeders
This was actually an item we wanted to present
as a full-length info feature, but we’ll have to
settle for a strong mention of it. One of the reasons
we encourage adoption rather than buying dogs from
breeders is that most breeders look to reproducing
puppies as a money maker. Very few do it for the
only right reason: to improve the breed, and weed
out genetic defects. (If you’re contemplating becoming
a breeder, we can only suggest that you stop in
your tracks. Now.)
Here’s an example of what can go wrong when the
breeder has money as their objective: There’s a
genetic strain of reddish golden retrievers out
there who at some point can simply snap, as if a
switch was thrown, and turn terribly violent. The
last incident I heard of was a couple who bought
their retriever in a parking lot out of the back
of a truck (warning sign #1 right there). They nearly
lost their daughter when their not-quite-year-old
dog attacked her.
The bottom line is: Do your research. Then do some
more.
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